Send us photos and your experiences with soil remineralization. Please let us know the source or sources of rock dust and how much you use, as well as where you are located and if it is for a garden, orchard, farm, woodland, or other landscapes. We are also interested in your experiences with diluted sea water and sea solids. We eagerly look forward to hearing from you!
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Dan Kittredge
Spencer Brook Farm, Concord, MA
10/23/07
Tomatoes in full bloom and lush growth going through third
flowering/fruiting cycle in MA. growing on soil that was last
year not much more than low pH sand and gravel. A mix of rock powders
was used to bring the plants to this state. Locally available granite
schist, highly paramagnetic blacksand, high trace element spectrum
summa minerals as well as high calcium lime and colloidal soft rock
phosphate. None of the traditional fungus or wilt diseases struck or
hornworms as can be easily seen by the lush growth and numerous
fruiting cycles. Tomatoes grown on nearby soil were struck down by
black wilt by mid August.
Click to enlarge images
Julie Rawson
Founder and manager of Many Hands Organic Farm CSA in Barre, Massachusetts and Executive Director of Northeast Farming Association (NOFA).
After success with some small scale testing with Ashfield Stone last year, we applied Suma Minerals this year (2007).
I have had over the top harvests of sugar snap peas. Last week we harvested over 200 pounds of peas from about 420 row feet of plants that rose to 8 or 9 feet in height. The leaves on things like chard, beets, flat leaf parsley are stronger and more turgid than I have known them to be. There are many fewer old and ratty looking beet leaves than in the past. The cut flowers have more brightness to their hues than in the past. The petunias in the flower boxes are magnificent. Three days in a row when I woke up this week I woke up with a new sense of physical power that I have never felt before. I figure it is from eating the vegetables that we are growing here. Good stuff!
Click to enlarge images
Our Experience
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Flavor
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Vibrant Color
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No Sloughing off of Leaves
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Infestations Way Down
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Turgidity and Waxiness
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Abundant Harvest
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Leaf and Plant
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Soil Texture
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Update from Many Hands Organic Farm CSA Newsletter, October 8-12, 2007: "This year fertility is the name of the game. I was proud to take the call on Friday from Rob at Living Earth when he raved about our produce being the best that comes through their store longest lasting, best
tasting, best looking. I need to publicly thank son Dan for turning me on to
volcanic mineral dust (we used a metric ton of it this year). It has jumped
our production quality several fold this year...Things will only get better!"
Update from Julie Rawson, November 6, 2007:
- The pea crop was outstanding and the level of production-I'd say we
got twice as many peas as last year from the same amount of space.
- The beets and carrots seemed to be outstanding throughout the whole
season with extremely sweet flavor. The beets' flavor surpassed anything
that I can remember.
- The summer squash kept producing until the end of October and was of
high quality (or course there were several successions).
- The brassicas went without blemish for the first several months and
when we did get cabbage looper the damage was extremely minimal. We are
still harvesting high quality cabbage, collards, and kale on November 6.
- This was by far the best black raspberry year I have seen in 20
years.
- The fall red raspberries were of extremely high quality also.
- Peaches were prolific and of very high quality.
- Onions and leeks were of some of the best quality I have seen.
- Winter squash plants were very healthy and the harvest was abundant.
Rob White, the produce manager of Living Earth, raved at least once a week
about the quality of the bunched greens, beets, carrots, and summer squash.
He told me that there was no other produce that he was able to purchase that
came anywhere near the quality of ours. He also said that ours lasted in
his walk-in in a way that no other produce lasted. He was particularly
amazed by the quality of the late summer squashes.
I have also noticed a real change in the soil quality all over the farm.
The texture is superb. We have had to use a shovel for carrots for the last
month and a half because the carrots were as long a foot.
We used a total of approximately 2,700 lbs of Summa Minerals this year on
2+ acres of intense vegetables and with about 3 lbs around our 100 fruit
trees.
Melons in Orange House
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Reall nice up close shot...
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Black Raspberries in the Annex
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Healthy Brassicas in the West Field
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Melon Carpeting
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Clay Olson in Northern California
Further "proof" of the value of rock dust. I have used no other
amendments -- if you need it spelt out: no manure, no chemical N/K
fertilizers; no fish soup; no compost -- other than rock dust 5 years
or more ago, two, 50lb bags costing about $15 each.
The red oats behind me are usually found, when traversing the hills
and dales of Northern California, to be almost always about no more
than knee-high, yet behind me, and I stand at just under 6'1" (unless
I've shrunk), are red oats over 6' tall, five years after applying the
rock dust! In other words, the rock-dust is still working 5 years
later! Tell a friend.
P.S. My favas were 6' tall too (you can see
some fava stalks to the left of me). Ever seen 6' tall favas? For
more info, go to www.remineralize.org.
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